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April 2017 HRMonthly 9
8
hrmonline.com.au
Putting out fires
Lyn Goodear FAHRI GAICD
Chief executive officer
Being a professional isn’t just about what you
know. Red Adair pioneered the profession of
international oil-well fire-fighting in the latter half
of the 20th century. He put out more than 2 ,000
land and off-shore fires, foremost among them a
spectacular Sahara desert gas fire that had burned
as a 140-metre pillar of flame from November
1961 until he capped it and snuffed it out in
April 1962.
At age 75, he led the Red Adair outfit when it
extinguished 117 gigantic oil fires in Kuwait that
had been lit by retreating Iraqi troops after the
1991 Gulf War. In a business that’s fraught with
danger to human life, he died quietly in 2004 at
the ripe age of 89.
Nicknamed ‘Red’ because of the colour of his
hair, Paul Adair learned the skills of fire-fighting
as a soldier in a bomb-disposal unit during the
Second World War, but claimed his success didn’t
simply rely on his body of knowledge. His highly-
trained crews brought techniques, but equally
critical was their ability to keep a cool head under
great pressure. It was estimated the Kuwait fires
would take five years to extinguish; his crews
put them out in nine months without
reporting a single casualty.
Red once observed: “If you
think it’s expensive to hire a
professional to do the job, wait
until you hire an amateur.”
HR practitioners don’t put out oil
infernos, of course, but they certainly
get called upon to hose down
spot-fires that are fuelled by hot-
headed and often ego-driven human
beings. Seasoned HR practitioners
are able to intervene and assist
dysfunctional enterprises to restore
harmony and productivity, and
ensure they prevail over workplace
discord and inertia.
While good HR brings
knowledge to the situation, it also
brings techniques and behaviours
that are based on an academic
grounding informed by
experience on the ground.
Qualities such as judgement,
courage, and a cool head
are central to the practice
of good HR, and are but
three of the 10 behavioural attributes found in
AHRI’s model of excellence which informs ou r
new certification blueprint.
With our certification initiative gaining
momentum, we are now able to assure business
in Australia that AHRI members who have
achieved the new post-nominal CPHR or
FCPHR are reliable and able to play the role
of partner to the business. Once members have
been inducted as Certified HR Practitioners by
AHRI’s National Certification Council, we can
tell business with confidence that those members
can be depended on to make a real difference to
the engagement of employees in the enterprise
so that they work towards its productivity,
competitiveness and sustainability.
With that in mind, it gives me great pleasure
to announce that we are now talking to business
about just that.
Last month AHRI placed almost 300 ‘Be the
One’ digital posters in Brisbane, Melbourne
and Sydney office tower locations. They inform
occupants and visitors alike about the benefits of
employing Certified HR Practitioners. We also
placed banners in those city airports.
In addition, if you are a Sydneysider
travelling through Cammeray, Cremorne,
or North Sydney and St James railway
stations, you can see AHRI’s ‘Be
the One’ billboards. Similarly,
Melbournians passing Young and
Jackson’s, or travelling under
the Arts Centre bridge
on City Road, or going
through South Yarra
or Richmond stations,
will notice our HR
certification billboards.
We are only just
beginning to talk to the
world about the merits
of AHRI members with
a CPHR or FCPHR post-
nominal, and in due course
our campaign will ex tend
to other locations. When that
happens, I trust we will be
talking about you. •••
Suicide watch
Work is an important part of our life.
We work to generate money, enjoy
the sense of a job well done, develop
friendships and feel part of something.
Nevertheless, it is estimated that one in
five Australians who commit suicide, do
so because of issues they are facing in
the workplace, says Pedro Diaz, leading
expert on mental health and CEO of the
Mental Health Recovery Institute.
“ While we don’t know exactly how
many suicides are work-related, one
Australian study found that 17 per cent of
suicides in Victoria from 2000 to 2007
were work-related,” says Diaz.
“Many Australian businesses are
competing against multi-nationals
who are able to source cheaper labour
overseas and invest in technology. As
a result, jobs are being lost, outsourced
and off-shored. This level of change,
pressure and disruption in the
workplace is creating significant stress
for workers generally. It is no surprise
that the presence of mental health
issues in the workplace is on the rise.”
Diaz also points to Australia having
the highest level of workplace bullying
in the world, nearly double the global
average.
“Directors, managers, business
owners, are all responsible and based
on recent Federal Court cases, can be
found to be personally liable for issues
in the workplace. Incorporating suicide
prevention, awareness and support
programs into the workplace is a must
for any organisation,” says Diaz.
CEO MESSAGE
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